


Past Participant

by bornforwar_archivist



Category: Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-31
Updated: 2006-12-31
Packaged: 2020-03-13 08:14:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18936961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bornforwar_archivist/pseuds/bornforwar_archivist
Summary: By Secular AtrophySpecial Agent Cecil Warren travels to the past to prevent Armaggedon, and gets a little help from the Warrior Princess and co. Unfortunately, inevitability takes a large part in the proceedings.





	Past Participant

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Delenn, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Born For War](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Born_For_War), which closed in 2015. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in March 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Born For War collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bornforwar).
> 
> Summary: Special Agent Cecil Warren travels to the past to prevent Armaggedon, and gets a little help from the Warrior Princess and co. Unfortunately, inevitability takes a large part in the proceedings. 
> 
> Disclaimer: Xena, Gabrielle, Ares, Argo and Dahak are the property of Universal Studios and Renaissance Pictures. Backstory is not mentioned, but that belongs to the above named studios too. I'm just borrowing them for a bit. I promise I'll return them. Also, I repeat, I'm too young to get sued. 
> 
> There's a little bit of violence. That is, unless you count Ares and Xena's relationship as violence. There's hardly any bad language. I believe that in good writing, swearing is unnecessary. -- Can you tell that I'm lying through my teeth? 
> 
> Rated: PG 
> 
> My attempt at a short Xena story. Enjoy.

Agent Cecil Warren glanced out of the thick window fearfully, taking in the fires scattered across Washington DC like gigantic, grotesque red and orange flowers. Numbly he watched the little black dots that were humans zigzaging slowly and crazily, running away from ancient demons that were all too real.   
  
Cecil had always wondered what the apocalypse would be like.   
  
He turned to his superior, "I'm ready.   
  
There was an occult appropriate flash. ~~~~~~~~~~   
  
"Xena?" A dark hand moved to touch her.   
  
Swiftly rising to her knees. the Warrior Princess grabbed that hand and effortlessly flipped the figure over her shoulder. He landed on her bedroll with a grunt. "Hey!" She had straddled him to prevent him from escaping.   
  
Now she scowled, "Ares?"   
  
The man stared, wide-eyed up at the magnificent view he was getting. "Oh, baby," he breathed, "If you wanted me in your bed, all you had to do was ask."   
  
There was a customary pause as the words sank in. Then Xena mashed the god's face into the bedding and all but jumped off of him. As she snatched up a blanket to cover herself with, she practically snarled at the him.   
  
"Get over yourself!" Damn him he could piss her off. "My clothes got soaked is all." The tall warrior would rather be caught naked than sick in the long run.   
  
Ares propped himself up on his elbow. "Aw, now don't do that, " he wheedled, "S'not like I haven't seen it all before."   
  
"Shut up." The Warrior Princess stoke up the fire, and the flames cast flickering shadows upon the jagged walls of the cave, it's crackling pleasantly harmonizing with the steady patter of the rain hitting the world outside. The light washed the still sleeping--that is, snoring like a bull--blond bard's pale locks a deep burnt orange.   
  
The god of war stared, transfixed. The woman before him, calmly tending to the fire and without her battle leathers on, she was no longer his Warrior Princess. She was more serene now, more feminine than she was in any mere dress. As she reached forward with another piece of fire wood, the blanket slid slightly from her smooth skin, exposing the curve of her breast. The light danced over her form, painting her flesh a mellow bronze.   
  
Ares reached out to the enticing flickerings across her muscled side, goaded by the irrepressible urge to trace the shadows...   
  
Xena put all of her strength into shoving the god away from her. As he thudded to the ground, she snapped briskly, "Stop that."   
  
Tossing aside the blanket, she slipped on her now dried undertunic. Settling back down into her bedroll, she rubbed her forehead wearily, "Tell me what you want or get lost."   
  
Ares cleared his throat, "What I want? Well --"   
  
"You know what I mean," Xena interjected, "If you don't have a good reason for being here, I'm going back to sleep."   
  
"Wait," Ares' manner became dead serious. "Someone is performing a spell that will cause the end of the world. I want your help in stopping him."   
  
"You don't need my help. Just kill him."   
  
"But I thought that stopping Dahak was pesonal to you."   
  
Xena sat up abruptly, "Dahak?"   
  
Her voice was quiet but the war god was almost positive that the fire lowered its temperature noticably, and that he heard the rain outside tinkle for a second as the droplets solidified into ice shards.   
  
Ares dismissed the brief thought as insane, or at the very least, delusional. "Yes," he confirmed. "I trust you do want to have a crack at him, foil his plans for entering this dimension?"   
  
Wanting to avoid admitting that Ares was right, Xena simply scowled, "What's a dimension?"   
  
The god shifted, sort of crab-walked, to sit beside the warrior woman, "You shamaness types call it a plane of existence."   
  
Xena nodded her comprehension, then flinched as the war deity raised his hands by her face.   
  
"Let me show you something." He shook his head at the doubt in her eyes, "I won't hurt you. It's important."   
  
When the Warrior Princess reluctantly agreed, Ares let his unnaturally soft fingers cup her jaw. Xena's black lashes drifted down over the crystalline blue at the comforting warmth, and... she was suddenly bombarded with tearing, shrieking feelings.   
  
There was a deep gnawing anxiety that brought with it an unwavering certainty that Something was sitting out there, watching a seed grow. It would take a lot of patience, but eventually the parasite vine would drain the tree it was growing against. There was a jumble of other emotions, premonitions; among them, Xena recognized for a fleeting moment, a calm, blissful love. A love serene in the knowledge that a woman was there, existing. It was intermingled with a deeply rooted fear that the woman, the dark-haired woman, would be gone one day... A heavy wall slammed shut on the thought before Xena could see, feel, who that woman was. She would have protested, but at that moment a thought launched itself, snarling, out from obscurity. It was a nameless, amorphous dread. Arrogant, mocking, it was proud of the horror, the pain it has and will have caused. It wanted her to be afraid; it was Dahak.   
  
Xena's eyes snapped open, "He wants to hurt..."   
  
The wargod nodded, "You felt it? That is what batters my mind every second of the day."   
  
"That must be... horrible," The Warrior Princess offered her hesistant condolences.   
  
"It is."   
  
Ares still held her face. As the air aound them fairly crackled with restless energy, he leaned forward slowly....   
  
The cave was brightly illuminated for a second, painted in negative colours as a startling black flash exploded just inches away from the two warriors. In that same instant, a crash of thunder cracked through the sky like a whip, once again proving that nature has a well-honed sense of dramatic appeal.   
  
Jumping, the two warmongers glanced up at the perplexingly dressed man in black.   
  
Cecil flushed darkly, "Sorry if I'm, um, interrupting anything..."   
  
Ares groaned, leaping to his feet along with Xena, "Sorry doesn't cut it, you fool. I was this close," he squeezed his forfinger and his thumb together expressively, "to kissing her and you just had to pick that moment to--"   
  
"Ares," The Warrior Princess' sharp voice cut the ranting god off. When he half turned, a strong hand grabbed his collar, preceding the sweet lips pressed to his mouth in a bruising kiss. Xena pulled away after a short while, "Now shut up."   
  
Ignoring the disoriented god, the raven-haired beauty regarded the newcomer warily, "You speak strange Greek."   
  
"I suppose, the dialect I learned, of ancient Greek, is not exactly the same as yours?" Cecil stuttered under the woman's piercing gaze.   
  
Xena raised an inky brow. A foreigner. "What do you want here?"   
  
The tall, red-headed agent sighed. No sense in lying to the locals. "I'm here to stop the lackey of an evil god, Dahak, from performing a spell that will eventually bring him into the world, and with hins the apocalypse."   
  
The Warrior Princess and the god of war exchanged bemused glances, "What a coincidence; so are we." ~~~~~~~~~~   
  
"So you were sent from the far future, in a time where Dahak reigns supreme, to stop him from being let into this world."   
  
Gabrielle blinked, staring at her friend, "It never ceases to amaze me how you can always tell even the longest story in less than two sentences, Xena."   
  
"Yes," Cecil agreed wholeheartedly, "You must be a master of words." He flushed deeply when Xena glanced suspiciously at him, giving the overall impression of a furry tomato. The agent quickly changed the subject. "About you stopping whoever it is who's performing the ritual? You must have failed, since Dahak was released into the world."   
  
"Obviously," Ares snapped, disturbed by the way the foreigner, Cecil, was staring fixedly at the high hem of Xena's tunic.   
  
"Well," Gabrielle smiled peacably, "since we're all after the same thing, the logical solution would be to work together."   
  
"Would it now?"   
  
"Aw, come on, Xena. Think of the possibilities," the blonde bard wheedled, "What we could learn."   
  
The Warrior Princess shrugged, "Suits me either way." She nearly rolled her eyes when the blond started bouncing around the cave, shrieking in that gods-forsaken voice of hers, "YAY!! WE'RE GONNA SAVE THE WORLD AGAIN! WHEE!! Ouch." Xena silently thanked the cave's tendency to have a low ceiling.   
  
"I could definitely use the help," Cecil offered eagerly.   
  
They all turned to Ares, who grumbled, "Fine. Whatever."   
  
Noticing that dawn had broken, the two women rose to break their camp, leaving Ares alone with Cecil.   
  
The god hauled the man's nose millimetres from his. "Let's get one thing straight. We may be working together to save the world, but... She's. Mine," He seethed forcefully.   
  
Cecil lowered his gaze from the god's scorching brown pools, and nodded, "Yes, sir. She's yours." ~~~~~~~~~~   
  
"Not a bad view up here," Ares remarked, "I'm still betting that you refused to go get me a horse so that you could bask in the glory of the God of War's company." He was, strangely, able to vocalize the capital letters.   
  
Xena knew he was egging her on, but she hated letting the god get the last word. "No... I refused to get a horse for you because I'm not about to steal one for you."   
  
"You're actually trying to tell me you don't like riding with me?"   
  
Cecil asked the bard in front of him quietly, "Are they always like this?"   
  
Gabrielle eyed the bickering warriors on Argo, "Worse." The blonde almost didn't catch the agent's next words: "So they're really in love then."   
  
"Would you like to ride with Gabrielle then?" Xena purposely stuck a very eager edge into her voice.   
  
"That's not a good idea, Xena. You can't trust any woman with me." The dark-haired man teased.   
  
Gabrielle let her horse drop back. "No way!" she hissed, "That's Ares you're talking about! She hates his guts!"   
  
As if to prove the bard's point, up ahead, Ares suddenly dropped off the horse like a sack of potatoes. This was somewhat due to the Warrior Princess's helping hand.   
  
Cecil grinned, "But he loves her. He threatened me about..." His voice petered out.   
  
The blond paled, "That doesn't mean she--"   
  
"Gabrielle," The blue-eyed warrior had reigned in Argo, "We're here."   
  
Her friend nodded and directed the man from the future to slide off her horse.   
  
When the foursome were clustered together, Xena reported in a low voice, "The cave is just around the bend ahead. According to Ares we've gotten here in time, so let's make this quick."   
  
The ensemble nodded and started forward.   
  
"And Gabrielle?" Xena hadn't budged. As they froze and watched, the Warrior Princess took the lead.   
  
"Stop speculating." ~~~~~~~~~~   
  
The dark-robed priest didn't move when he heard the warriors burst into his cave. He knew they could see his violent trembling, but it wasn't so much for fear as it was for anticipation. His ritual was complete but for one element...   
  
Xena raised her sword and swung it in a whistling arc, and the priest's blood splattered hot and red over his arcane symbols etched across the rocky floor.   
  
... The sacrifice. ~~~~~~~~~~   
  
Cecil clasped Gabrielle's arm in his own, "Thank you for your help, for saving the world."   
  
The blond bard smiled dumbly, a bit of drool gathering at the corner of her mouth, "Thank you." The flying spittle barely missed Cecil. He masked a shudder with a quick smile.   
  
The man then took the Warrior Princess' proffered hand, but instead of a handshake, he brought it to his lips for a soft kiss. "Goodbye," He whispered.   
  
Gabrielle forced herself not to snigger at the warrior woman's exasperated expression. What came out was incredibly similar to a pig's snort.   
  
Then Cecil turned to Ares. The two male members of the posse stared silently at each other for a few seconds. Then, of an accord, they both pivoted contemptously.   
  
The red-haired agent took a small black box (he thought of it as an RTC) and fiddled a litlle with the knobs on it. When a green LCD started flashing, Cecil glanced up at the ancient heroes, "Thank you."   
  
The unnerving black flash filled the clearing, and faded a millisecond later, the man from the future with it.   
  
Ares draped an arm around the Warrior Princess' shoulders, suddenly relieved. Ignoring her withering glare, he drwled, "So, wanna check out that new lunch place in Corinth?"   
  
The trip back was very fast for Cecil. He could just hear all his compatriotes, chanting his name, proclaiming his a hero. Maybe they would even give him a badge or something.   
  
He arrived, standing stock still for a moment as he gathered his bearings.   
  
Then, as his hearing returned, Cecil thought he heard cheering. He smiled, and it grew louder, and louder...   
  
... and Cecil knew it wasn't cheering. It was screaming.   
  
'Of course it didn't work,' Cecil thought bitterly, 'It's the past. It already happened.' He didn't know who he was tryng to explain to, glaring angrily at the horendous monster advancing smugly on him, a predator stalking its prey. 'Nothing happened that wasn't supposed to happen.'   
  
It was gradually dawning on Cecil that maybe he should run...   
  
How was he supposed to know that the could would move so damn fast?   
  
As he felt the jagged jaws rip easily through his flesh, numbed by his overwhelming fury, the man glanced up, and saw a vision of beauty, of love.   
  
His pain and anger seeping away, Cecil listened to the Warrior Princess' soothing voice wrap around his soul, drawing him to peace.   
  
_"Mankind's greatest gift is free will, but from free will stems conflict. Only as animals can humans achieve true, mindless peace. Mankind covets peace, yet refuses to relinquish free will, therefore conflict. The strongest man is the one who recognized the hopeless failings of mankind, but still strives to be one to the best of his or her ability... Who embraces his or her misfortune of being born a man."_


End file.
